Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1887-10-27
CHEATERS OF TOILERS.
HOW THEY ARE SERVED BY THE
WOMEN'S PROTECTIVE UNIONS.
Some of the Cases Undertaken by the
Organization i'm New York-How Male
Swindlers Are brought to Terms-The
COMPLAINTS,

Swindlers Are brought to Terms-The
Complaints.
A pretty, dark eyed Cir, with delicate face
which was not less attractive because of some
traces of sorrow upon it, entered the Office of
Working Womens Protective union one day
recently.
II want to get my money" she said to the
superintendent. Madam - land she
gave the name of fashionable Fifth avenue
dressmaker) owes me S3S for work"
ooh, yes" said the superintendent ave
know that dressmaker You are not the first
one to complain against her."
Then the dark eyed girl told her story.
Her father was an Italian artist in England
She came to this country with her brother,
and he deserted her. She used her needle to
support herself in various places, and finally
answered the Fifth avenue dressmaker'S adj
vertisemelt for fnisher at $40 week. The
dressmaker paid her little at a time, but
never all she owed. She wanted the $3S due
her to pay her passage back to England,
where her father was. The dressmaker told
her that she had spoiled her work, which was
not true because she had seen the work ac-
cepted by the customers.
The superintendent, believing the girls
story, opened her batteries on the fashionable
dressmaker by sending her the following:
MADAM -: A complaint against you
has been left at this office by. who alleges
that you owe her S3S which she is unable to
collect If there is any just cause why she
should not receive this money, you will please
make it personally known to us within three
days, or are we shall be obliged to assume
that your silence is an admission of the debt,
and to place the matter before the court for
collection. Yours respectfully,
IN. w. FERRER, Superintendent"
ave will have that money for you to-mor-
row, think" said the superintendent to the
girl, and turning to the reporter she said:
THAT madam has refused several times to
pay similar claims, but has always done so
when they were presented by the union. We
have collected about $500 from her in small
sums for poor girls. Very little difficulty is
experienced in collecting these claims after
employers thoroughly comprehend that they
have to deal with a powerful organization,
and not with defenseless working woman" "
against what class of employers do you
receive most complaints"
against dressmakers, / think. Why,
know of one doing business now who has de-
frauded thirty girls at least, for we have that
many judgments against her. She has a
large house elegantly furnished with turni-
ture obtained on the installment plan, and
that we can't touch till the installments are
paid. She is very shrewd woman, and has
fixed all her property so we cannot get at it"
The female employers, explained the super
intendent, always cause the union the most
trouble. There is a section of the code where
by man against whom a Judgment has been
obtained for unpaid wages to female en-
ploye, and who has no property in sight to
attach, can he arrested and imprisoned for
fifteen days. Necktie makers, glove makers
and little manufacturers are continually de-
frauding their girls, but the wise girls who
take their claims to the union generally get
their money.
One class of these swindlers of women, after
so many operations in one city as to make a
continued residence warm for them, remove
to another city and begin the same business.
But there are other unions in other cities.
Recently a man, well known milliner and
dressmaker in Philadelphia, swindled lots of
his girls, and the Philadelphia Women's Pro-
tective union took proceedings against him.
He picked up his property and came to this
city. The girls claims were turned over to
the union here, and judgme It was obtained
against him. But the swindler, though very
shrewd, didn't know of the clause in the code,
and SO paid no attention to the judgment
When he was told about that clause by an
officer Of the law, he whistled, and then paid
the full amount with costs
No claim is too small for the union to take
up. Suit for twenty-five cents has been
brought several times, and after going
| no ha
been collected.
The excuses invented by these sharks of the
workshop are very numerous, and many OF
them amusing. A common one is that the
work which girl has performed is unsatis-
factory, though the work is taken just the
same. This excuse didn't pass the other day
with nimble fingered girl, skillful at fancy
work. She had undertaken the embroidering
of daisies on felt, at the magnificent pay of
one and a quarter cents each. She had
finished 2G5 of the daisies, when she asked her
employer, a woman, who kept fancy work
store, for pay for them The employer had
a bad habit of finding fault with girls work,
and then deducting a certain amount from
their wages.
1t costs no girl anything to enlist the SER
vices of the union. That is one of the princi-
pies OH WHICH III was IOunOeu. Ii Is q society
that does great deal of good with very
little money, not to protect idling, frivolous
women, but women who work. According
to the secretary's report, the union has an
swered since its establishment, in the time of
the civil war and up to January, 1887, 290,
Ais applications, furnished 4S, l07 employ
ments, prosecuted 10, 123 complaints of fraud,
recovered and paid to workingwomen $780,
31257, in sums averaging S349.
| Girls of all sorts of vocations go to the
office to lodge their complaints. Typewriters
and stenographers go OTTER to complain that
the lawyers for whom they have been work
ing won't pay them. But the lawyers do pay
after they receive that little opening letter,
which is simply an announcement that they
will be dragged into court and imprisoned if
they don't pay. Actresses who can't get
their pay from managers Of travelling COM
panies, washwomen who can't get at tie peo-
pie they have washed for to collect their
dues, walters in restaurants who get on an
average of $3.50 week when they get it at
all, fan and neckte makers who more often
than others work for nothing, and sewing
girls in many different branches of trade are
| constant patrons and benefciaries of the Wo-
mems Protective Union-New York Sum-
Kansas Hvperbole.